HAVING watched Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians
Of The Galaxy 2 on the big screen recently, then perusing a bunch of Marvel
titles like Avengers Arena last month in a separate project, THIS MONTH I
decided to make it a Marvel-exclusive month (well, with a couple of
exceptions). Apart from reading a shitload of Secret Avengers, this is all very
random, but at least I knocked off some comics that have been sitting in my
unread pile for nearly THIRTY YEARS.

1.
The Fantastic Four Pop-Up Book (Candlewick
Press, 2008) ****

I love 3-D pop-up books
and this chunky book – featuring original 1960s text and artwork by Stan Lee
and Jack Kirby – is really cool. I have the other two books in the series
(X-Men and Spider-Man), but I think this volume is my favourite.

Several years back, I
reread Mark Gruenwald’s classic Squadron
Supreme maxiseries from 1985 and the not-quite-as-good sequel Squadron Supreme: Death Of A Universe
(1989). I decided to buy any title featuring the super-team from Marvel’s
version of Earth 2. So I picked up this Defenders
arc that depicted the events that led to the original maxiseries (where the
Squadron take control of the planet and force Utopia on an unhappy populace).
These three issues feature the usual overwrought Marvel writing style and some
truly abysmal art by Perlin and Gustovich. Still, it’s the Squadron and even
though they come across as evil Overmind’s patsies (in fact, the Squadron have
always been a bunch of losers, come to think of it), it was cool to read what
was essentially the prequel to the far superior maxiseries.

The four-issue arc in
Quasar depicts the Squadron survivors after the events of Death Of A Universe when they return to Earth, only to find they’re
on OUR Earth. They encounter Quasar, take residence at Project Pegasus and get
mind-controlled (again). This cosmic arc features a murder mystery (who is
killing multiple Watchers?), the return of Overmind, The Stranger and a slew of
guest stars who are being experimented on by The Stranger including Jack Of
Hearts, Ego Prime and more.

The Squadron have a
cameo in #27 but thankfully they’re not mind-controlled in this ish.

These were, I think, the
oldest unread comics in my collection. Yep, 30 years. So, was it worth it?
Well, yes...in the end. This is one of the first miniseries Marvel did and it’s
really an excuse for their two big teams to fight each other. Sadly, both
incarnations of the teams are pretty lame. This is The Avengers during their Dr
Druid, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau version), Black Knight, She-Hulk, Captain
America and a not-so-powerful Thor phase. The X-Men are Wolverine, Dazzler (!),
a depowered Storm, Havok and Rogue. Oh... and this was period when Magneto was
a good guy, even though he was a mass murderer.

Anyway, his past comes
to haunt him when The Avengers come to arrest him (and the Soviet Super
Soldiers arrive to assassinate him for sinking a Russian submarine and
destroying a Russian city). Inexplicably, The X-Men defend him. After three
convoluted issues, Magneto eventually goes on trial in an international court and
is INEXPLICABLY found not guilty of mass murder. Why? Because it’s decided that
Magneto was a country (representing mutantkind) and was at war with humanity. So
that justifies killing a bunch of civilians. Um...okay. That aside, the ending
is very downbeat as Magneto realises that his court victory has only stirred up
further anti-mutant hostility and could lead to war between the two species.
Considreing how formulaic and, at times, stupid writing, Stern finishes the
miniseries with some quiet poignancy.

I loved the “Who
Remembers Scorpio?” storyline that ran in The
Defenders #46-50 in 1977. And I dug the Zodiac cartel (12 villains who
dressed like the signs of the zodiac) in Avengers #120-121 in the mid-70s. This
sequel (of sorts) is marred by some cack-handed art by Milgrom (whose
ubiquitous but unwelcome hackwork was a depressing part of Marvel during this
era). But the storyline is pretty cool with the original Zodiac being
slaughtered by a new Zodiac comprised of LMDs and led by a Jake “Scorpio” Fury
LMD. The only survivor is the original Taurus who goes to the West Coast
Avengers for help. It’s a pretty cool storyline.

Remember when Hercules
died? Nah, me neither. Which is sad because I actually read the issue in which
he kicked the bucket. Anyway, he was dead here, but he’s all better now. I only
bought these books to read the ATLAS
back-up tale anyway.

Ellis does what he does
best. He gets in, writes mature, gripping and intelligent comics for a couple
of arcs (if we’re lucky), then gets the hell out to make his successor look
crap by comparison. This version of the Thunderbolts is truly horrific,
capturing superheroes using extreme force at the be

hest of their boss,
Norman “Green Goblin” Osborne, in the aftermath of Civil War. Bullseye has
never been so terrifying. Fantastic, fantastic comic.

The first nine issues of
The Rampaging Hulk were some of my
favourite Marvel mags in the 70s. The B&W magazine depicted untold tales of
the Hulk from the early days of his career, depicting the green giant’s
earliest meetings with The Avengers, The X-Men and more. Sadly, Marvel decreed
after the run ended that the issues were non-canon, then tried to ignore them.
But Bill Mantlo felt a compulsion to explain away this continuity discrepancy
through a story arc (starting in Hulk
#269) where Krylorian techno-artist Bereet (who was a major character in The Rampaging Hulk) had created a movie
about the Hulk’s life. The events that took place in The Rampaging Hulk were actually scenes from the film. It’s kinda
clever, actually. If Bereet’s name sounds familiar to modern readers it’s
because her character has a cameo at the start of the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie as Peter
Quill’s fling.

65.-91.
Secret Avengers #12.1.-37 (Marvel, 2011-13)
SEE BELOW

I finally got around to
finishing this rather excellent offshoot of the regular Avengers series, which
had a strong spy/black ops feel to it despite the range of different writes
working on it. It’s a credit to th ewriters that despite having to stay
connected with the regular Marvel Universe (and all those damn crossovers), it
retained a high standard throughout.

Spencer’s final few
issues suffered due to working on the sub-par Fear Itself event. Probably the
strongest issues are the point-of-entry #12.1 with the Secret Avengers trying
to save an undercover informant after he and hundreds of other informants are
exposed by US Agent. I also liked the Black Widow solo tale in #15 that tackles
the hairy subject of all those superhero resurrections in the Marvel U.

And then Ellis comes
along and takes the series up several notches. Hard-hitting, high-tech action,
fascinating concepts, razor-sharp dialogue... My personal favourite is #20 when
the Black Widow survives a mission that sees her fellow Avengers killed by
being thrown back in time. She spends months (years?) setting up everything to
save the Avengers when she reaches that moment in time again. Intricate,
ingenious. This entire arc is perfection.

And the series winds up
with several arcs in a more traditional “Avengers vs several Big Bads leading
to the Ultimate Big Bad storyline”. Remender was on the road to being a great
writer during this run and there are a lot of great ideas on display, including
the rise of an army of mechanical life forms called “The Descendants”, the
death of Antman and his being replaced by an evil LMD, the first use of Venom
as a “good guy” now that he’s operated by Flash Thompson, the introduction of
the undead Avengers, “The Celestial”, on Earth-666, the new Masters Of Evil
(containing hundreds of super-villains...this was explored further in Avengers Undercover), The Abyss and
more.

There’s a lull during a
less-than-stellar AvsX crossover seeing
the brief resurrection and death of the original Captain Marvel in #26-28, but
it’s back to greatness from #29 onwards.

A fascinating concept
that barely lasted 16 issues: a team of Secret Avengers work for S.H.I.E.L.D.,
but their work is so top secret that they have their memories wiped after every
mission for national security reasons. A.I.M. as an independent nation, the
Avengers undertaking political assassinations, Taskmaster as a good guy (sorta)
and Mockingbird trapped in a middle-aged henchman’s body. Very cool.

#10-11 is an Infinity
tie-in and deals with two very regular people affected by the Terrigan Mists
and becoming Inhumans, one good and one not-so-good.

I love this mag to bits
for the cool tip-ons (posters, stickers, toys, etc), but Superfan is the most obnoxious comic strip ever created. That kid
deserves the most painful death known to man. And his parents need a backhander
each for their shitty parenting.

152.
Stratu’s Diary Comics May 2017
(self-published, 2017) *

Writer/Artist: Stratu

153.
21 Years of Microcosm Publishing
(Microcosm, 201?) ***¼

Writers: Joe Biel and
Elly Blue/Artist: Peter Glanting

I received this free
with my copy of Xerography Debt #41. It’s the history of this Portland,
Oregon-based book company and a mini-history of publishing in America since
1900. Kinda cool A1 folded, full-colour comic.

Friday, June 23, 2017

THE problem with some miniseries is that they're better read in one hit as a trade rather than as a monthly floppy.This is the problem with Bankshot. We've barely scratched the surface of the story by the end of the first issue, so not much makes sense at all. If it wasn't for the over-excited blurb on the inside front cover I wouldn't know what the hell is going on or who the main character is. Is this the fault of writer Alex de Campi (of Archie vs Predator fame...or is that infamy)? It feels as if he wrote this as a complete graphic novel, then chopped it into five parts and it just doesn't work.Marcus King is a terrorist or maybe a good guy - it's hard to tell. We know the FBI think he's a very bad person. He used to be a US soldier, according to a lengthy flashback. In fact, the issue ends mid-flashback with King being shot in the back while fleeing from an uber-villain called The Dutchman. Other than that, NADA.ChrisCross's
artwork is okay, but he's done better. At times, it's hard to tell what is exactly happening, particularly in the flashback when
King and his unit are attacking an enemy convoy in the desert. I'll give issue two a shot because I'm curious enough to see where this is all leading, but this is one comic that may be better left alone till the collected edition comes out.A final note: the colourist on this comic is called Snakebite Cortez, which is arguably the greatest name ever.

Bankshot #1
is published by Dark Horse and retails for US$3.99. It goes on sale June 28.

DUD
(or lower) Nameless, later New X-Men and any of his hippy-dippy,
pseudo-mystical crap

SO, MAY was a month
where I decided to read a complete run of a particular series or miniseries. It
meant I finally knocked over some titles I’d collected but never bothered to
read at the time, some of which had been sitting around for up to EIGHT YEARS.
Let’s see what I thought of these various titles and whether they had an impact
on me when they were read in one hit.

Jack Kirby’s New Gods meets Jersey Shore meets The
Sopranos? This series tried to be a lot of things, but clearly it failed as
it was unceremoniously axed after only 12 issues. To be honest, Brunswick isn’t
the greatest writer, McDaid’s art was mediocre and the rushed conclusion just
smacked of...sucky rushed’ness. Had its moments, but this series didn’t deserve
to carry on.

My problem with The Filth when I first read it in
2002-03 was that I consumed it as individual floppies, so there was a month’s
gap between issues. It just didn’t make any sense to me. Re-reading it 15 years
later in one hit and this mind-bending series still makes little sense, but I
can admire Morrison’s madness and desire to cram as many ideas as possible into
one maxi-series. Ned Slade is part of an elite secret super-cop defense system
protecting the world from the disgusting CRAP that threatens to overwhelm it at
times. Giant killer sperm, micro-colonies of I-Life creatures, unkillable
super-assassins, self-made superheroes, insane cruise ship-dwelling pirates,
dope-smoking Soviet ape cosmonauts, youth-stealing serial killers and more. But
is Ned Slade real? Or is it his “cover identity” of Greg Feely – aging
masturbator, cat lover and possible paedophile – the real person and Ned the
fake identity? My head kinda exploded around issue #10, so I can’t answer that
for certain. This is a very ambitious series and I’m glad I reread it. Do I
understand it? No, I do not.

Not one of Fraction’s
better efforts – you can really see him being “oh-so-clever” and disappearing
up his own arsehole with this “tribute” to 70s Marvel titles like The Defenders, Omega The Unknown and
Jack Kirby’s Black Panther.
Ultimately, he unleashes that hoary old deus
ex machina of “Dr Strange goes back in time and undoes all the damage”. The
Black Panther doesn’t die, the world isn’t destroyed, The Defenders were never
re-formed. All in all, this circle jerk of a maxi-series was a waste of time.

Pedestrian, wannabe Star
Trek/Battlestar Galactica one-shot from 1978 was inexplicably reprinted, then
reimagined two decades later. Abnett and Edginton desperatedly wanted this
miniseries to become an ongoing series, but it’s just so fucking MEH. Earth’s
last survivors are on a gigantic spaceship hurtling through the void looking
for a new planet to repopulate. They meet friendly aliens, unfriendly aliens,
an evil spaceship computer and the hint of a future plotline involving a murder
mystery that will never got resolved ’cos nobody bought Seeker 3000...except me.

Fifteen years later,
Alice had another go to promote a new album via a comic. At least The Last Tempation drops the comedy and
aims for a horror theme. Alice is The Devil (or some supernatural equivalent)
trying to tempt Steven at Halloween to sell his soul and join his travelling
theatre troupe. It’s a bit naff, but Zulli’s art is lovely, as is McKean’s
collage-style covers. It’s hard for me to say this, but The Last Temptation miniseries is a rare misfire by Gaiman.

I didn’t even know I’d
bought this trade till I rediscovered it a few weeks ago. Why did I buy it?
Maybe I liked the concept of a 70s punk band turned Robin Hood-style thieves
and targeting The Queen’s Crown Jewels. Yeah, I liked the concept. Shame the
execution is so fucking bad. This is just a terribly pretentious, annoyingly
left-wing, oh-so-righteous comic where a cartoonish, complicated plot and Tank Girl-style art (that’s NOT a
compliment) leads to a whole lot of nothing. The Queen is evil. Punk is good (but
the Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren were bad). Everything about 70s England was
bad. Anarchy and crime is good. Bollocks! Utter garbage.

53.-54.
Journey: Wardrums (Fantagraphics,
1987-90) ****

Writer/Artist: William
Messner-Loebs

Three years between drinks
is too long for a comic series, even one as enthralling as tale of the
French-British war in Canada in 1812. It was meant to go for six issues, but
only lasted two. Shame.

Captain Marvel, Hellcat,
Emma Frost, Valkyrie and She-Hulk are thoroughly manhandled by Immonen who
can’t write for shit. The art is okay, but there are far too many
inconsistencies and shallow characterisations of the various female heroes who
are thrown together for the lamest of reasons (“it’s Emma Frost’s birthday”).
Lame.

An anti-climactic conclusion
to one of my fave shortlived series, Young
Allies.

72.-87.
FF #1-16 (Marvel, 2013-14) ***

Writers: Matt Fraction
and Lee Allred/Artist: Michael Allred

Great art and a
typically quirky Fraction story. I’m not surprised it only lasted 16 issues,
although apparently this was a deliberate decision. The storyline seems to be a
bit fractured, though, and certain plot strands don’t make any sense in
hindsight...like the future old John Storm who returns to Earth to warn the new
FF about the demise of the old Fantastic Four...who aren’t dead anyway.

This is an interesting
beast with a beloved media-friendly superhero, The American, being exposed as
one of the military’s deepest, darkest projects. In the process, Verheiden throws
in conspiracy theories, a still-alive-and-pulling-strings Dwight D. Eisenhower,
a washed-up middle-aged sidekick and a drunken investigative journalist Dennis
Hough. It’s all written in that over-wordy 1980s style, at times wavering between
“serious” Alan Moore-style scripts and wisecrackin’ Moonlighting-style comedy-action. The series reaches its natural conclusion in
#4 and that would have seemed to be the obvious place to end a reasonably
interesting miniseries. But Verheiden soldiered on. The next four issues kinda
meander about with the remaining guy known as The American feeling lost without
his purpose in life while Hough continues to fall further into a pit of
alcoholism and domestic violence. #7 and #8 really felt like the series was
heading somewhere new and different...then it stopped.

The series proper was
wrapped up with this special, which was originally supposed to be #9. It ends
on a downer: The American is shot by the disgruntled grandfather of a criminal
that The American killed while stopping a robbery. His only friends, Hough and
his ex-girlfriend Candice, go visit him as he lies near death on a hospital bed.
And...THE END. But not quite.

This self-contained colour
miniseries sees The American leave hospital and, emotionally distraught, get caught
up in a Scientology-style cult. Hough and Candice go searching for him and wind
up in a redneck town where the locals don’t take kindly to the cultists who’ve
settled in next door (shades of the Orange People in Oregon). This rapidly gets
turned on its head when the cultists are revealed to be nature-loving, peaceful
types (despite their strong-hand tactics in converting people) who wear MONKEY
MASKS. And the redneck locals are the evil scumbags. After a huge fire fight
where a large number of people are killed – and Candice seriously wounded – but
it ends on an upbeat note with Hough sober and seemingly back on the rails,
while The American and Candice have become an item. I guess that was as good a place
as any to put The American to rest.

110.-127.
Avengers Arena #1-18 (Marvel, 2013-14)
*****

Writer: Dennis
Hopeless/Artists: Kevin Walker and friends

Battle Royale meets
Marvel’s sidekicks as 16 super-powered youngsters (including members of Runaways,
Avengers Academy and the newly created Braddock Academy) are trapped in Arcade’s
Murder World and ordered to off each other over the next 30 days. This series
seriously fooled me – when I started buying it, I assumed that it was some
kinda AI situation and all the budding heroes were locked away somewhere in a
basement. How else would you explain Arcade’s near God-like powers? But as the series
went on, I realised it was all REAL and the heroes who’d been killed were...y’know,
DEAD. So some of my fave characters like Avengers
Academy’s Mettle and Reptil and interesting new characters such as Apex,
Cullen Bloodstone and Kid Briton actually bit the bullet during this
extraordinary 18-issue run. The way Apex progressed from slightly amoral
superhero to out-and-out psycho villain was intriguing. And my fave character
was another Hopeless creation, Death Locket, who is abused and manipulated by
Apex until the final issue. The series ends with the survivors swearing not to
reveal the secret of what went on during their ordeal (a bit like the private
schoolboys-turned-savages in Lord Of The
Flies), but we see Arcade uploading all the video footage of their
murderous activities for the past month to the internet. This is brutal,
amazing stuff and I’m stunned Hopeless was allowed to romp so unfettered
through the Marvel U. Which leads directly into...

Another underrated
series sees seven of the Murder World survivors (minus X-23 and Darkhawk)
trying to cope with their new-found infamy after the world has watched them via
Arcade’s online videos. The group decide to track down Arcade (with
distrastrous consequences), which ultimately leads them into making a decision to
join Baron Zemo’s Masters Of Evil. Six of them are doing it so they can bring
the organisation down from the inside, but Death Locket enjoys what she’s doing
and, in a shocking final issue, decides to stay with Zemo’s evil clan. There
are a couple of significant plotholes that bring Avengers Undercover down a notch but, all in all, it’s a fantastic
lil’ series.

138.-140.
Our Story Thus Far #1-3 (Jabberwocky
Graphix, 1983-88) **

Writer/Artists: many

Brad Foster’s idea was a
noble one: “the ultimate artist jam!” – and he certainly brought together an
eclectic group of zine, indie and mainstream talent, including Rick Geary,
Trina Robbins, cat yronwode, Valentino, Eastman and Laird, Kerry Gammill, Matt
Wagner, Chester Brown, Phil Foglio, Michael T. Gilbert, William Messner-Loebs
and Joe Staton. The problem is that a comix jam where everyone is given just
one page to write and draw is going to become chaotic and confusing, no matter
how strict the guidelines. This three-part exercise (there were supposed to be
more volumes, but Brad clearly ran out of energy) just doesn’t make enough
sense to make it worth reading. Frankly, it’s an unentertaining mess.

I’m not sure why I
bought this book, especially as I have most of the comics this stuff was
originally printed in, but I have to say that if this is the “best” of Milligan
and McCarthy, I NEVER want to read the “worst”. Milligan is a fine superhero
comic writer nowadays, but back in the 70s and 80s, most of what he wrote was
pretentious art school tosh. This collection of his collaborations with overrated
McCarthy are cringeworthy and naff. I gave up on some of the strips because the
dialogue is so dense and dull and SHIT. McCarthy can draw (a bit), but it looks
like he’s vomited his palette of paints on every page. It gives me a migraine
just looking at it. I repeat, Milligan is waaaay better now – you’d just never
know it reading this drivel. I’d give it a “DUD”, but I’ll give a star each to Paradax (an amusing post-modern
superhero that pre-dates Zenith) and
the loopy concept behind Skin (about
a thalidomide skinhead). That said, I already have Skin as a stand-alone graphic novel, so I’ll review it separately.

ME AND the kids planned
to hit two places on FCBD: Phantom Zone in Parramatta and The Comic Shop in
Liverpool. But the chillum turned so feral after our Phantom Zone sojourn that
I decided to give Liverpool a miss.

Not that it mattered as
we scored 20 comics between me, Helen, Jones and Dash. So that was 13 comics
for me and seven for the kids. As a bonus, the following day, Helen took the
children to the Parramatta Library where there were EVEN MORE free comics on
offer, courtesy of Phantom Zone. So they nabbed another half dozen. All in all,
a really cool score. So...what did I read?

150.
Betty and Veronica #1 (Archie, 2017)
****½

Writer/Artist: Adam
Hughes

Just about gorgeous on
every level. Beautiful art by Hughes and his dialogue reminds me of the
sparkling to-and-froing last heard in the Buffy
The Vampire Slayer TV series (only with less bloodsuckers). Just about
perfect. I’m tempted to pick up the first trade when it comes out.

151.
I Hate Image (Image, 2017) ****¼

Writer/Artist: Skottie
Young

Every Image comic gets
roasted by the creator of I Hate
Fairyland. Funny stuff.

152.
Kid Savage (Image, 2017) ***

Writer: Joe
Kelly/Artist: Ilya

Primitive alien meets
space travelling human family is a familiar sci-fi trope and I don’t feel like
any new ground is being explored here.

I liked the first volume
of WCNGH, so this taster of volume
two was pretty cool. But the surprise find was the intro to Young Terrorists. Seems like a cool
premise – like a darker, noirish reimagining of Hit Girl’s origin. I’m thrilled
to learn that the complete series is finally being released as a trade
paperback next month.

162.
Bob’s Burgers (Dynamite, 2016) ***½

Writers/Artists: various

163.
Valiant: 4001 A.D. FCBD Special
(Valiant, 2016) ***

Writers/Artists: various

I’m just not into
Valiant.

In addition to the
titles specifically made for FCBD, Phantom Zone gave away free copies of the
following titles:

I love Stu and this is a
fascinating exercise of self-discipline, but the cupboard is bare when it comes
to intellectual or entertaining reading material. Friending and blocking people
on Instagram, internet shopping, TV shows or films he’s watched,
vaping...there’s just not a lot of depth in what’s purportedly a “diary”. And I
understand that dilemma – when I briefly did my own diary comic last year, I
gave up because I was unwilling to share my most intimate thoughts to
strangers. So what I was left with was the mediocre, mundane (and occasionally
interesting) minutae of day-to-day living. The few times Stu explores more
personal territory – like hanging out with his aunt or talking about how a
certain person has let him down or helped him or whatever, then the zine gets
more interesting. But those moments are a few and far between. That said, I did
appreciate Stu’s mention of Seoul Station
(the anime prequel to the excellent South Korean zombie flick Train To Busun. It encouraged me to buy
it). I appreciate Stu’s work ethic and artwork (the personalised cover on the
March issue was lovely). I note that he’s changed the format for April, turning
it into an A6 digest (maybe for monetary reasons?). Either way, this zine is fine
if you’re a friend of Stu’s and want to know how he keeps himself busy every
day, but I wish it was so much more.

Dash asked me to read
this graphic novel because he thinks Captain Underpants (and everything else
created by Dav Pilkey) rocks! He’s not half-wrong. This is quite funny, in a
very puerile, toilet humour way.